AtD / TRP / feminist type stuff

[bekah]

First,  thank you hugely for the recommendation to read the 
Introduction and The Secret Integration in Slow Learner.   I very 
much enjoyed both and pass that recommendation on to anyone who has 
not read them (!).

Next,  along the lines of said Introduction...

The times make a difference to both writer and reader.   Thomas 
Pynchon was a product of our times - a genius product to be sure - 
but a product nonetheless.  His big influences at the time would have 
been Lenny Bruce,  Alan Ginsberg,  Vladimir Nabokov and Hugh Hefner. 
So, for a 25 year-old, literarily inclined male to read GR in the 
70s, (just post-Vietnam)    was mind-blowing" and original.    It was 
about sex, drugs and rock 'n roll and war.

A 50-something,  non-literary woman,  reading it for the  first time 
in  2005 might not be affected in quite the same way.    So,  yes,  I 
found GR to be "a bit"  sexist in parts.  Young women were sex 
objects while older women were Moms and grandmas (were there women 
over 30 in GR?  - not a complaint,  maybe they weren't appropriate to 
the plot or themes or anything) .

 From the Introduction to Slow Learner

Pynchon is describing the story "The Low Lands" where the infamous 
Pig Bodine makes his appearance (pub. 1960):

**
"American males, ... still small boys inside.  Flange is this type of 
character, although when I wrote this story I thought I wrote he was 
pretty cool.  He wants children - why isn't made clear - but not at 
the price of developing any real life shared with an adult woman. 
His solution to this is Nerissa, a woman with the size and demeanor 
of a child.  I can't remember for sure, but it looks like I wanted 
some ambiguity here about whether or not she was a creature of his 
fantasies."

**
Pynchon accepts the idea of a personal connection to the character of 
Flange,  but also directs the reader to the popularity of Playboy at 
the time.

Later in the  same Introduction:

**
"Modern readers will be, at least, put off by an unacceptable level 
of racist, sexist and proto-Fascist talk throughout this story.,   I 
wish I could say that this is only Pig Bodine's voice, but, sad to 
say, it was also my own at the time.  The best I can say for it now 
is that, for its time, it is probably authentic enough. John 
Kennedy's role model James Bond was about to make his name kicking 
third-world people around ...

***

Pynchon talks about James Bond making his name with third-world 
people but he also made his name with "doll-like" (in many ways) sex 
toys, (robots,  I think),  not adult women.

I don't think Pynchon snapped out of this prevalent 60s attitude any 
more than any of us (God knows I tried to be like Bond's women in the 
looks and attitude departments).

I was introduced to  Pynchon  via Vineland about 10 - 12 years ago. 
I enjoyed it very much and found the women and sex to be funny and a 
bit weird.  I can recall some  great feminist vibes in this book and 
I'd like to reread it  (twice so far).  So this  was my only and 
therefore favorite Pynchon novel.

So I went on to Mason & Dixon when it came out and liked it even 
better.   :-)  Great women in that one,  although none very well 
developed.     But M&D was so great that it was immediately my 
favorite Pynchon novel.

    So awhile later I gave The Crying of Lot 49 a try.  Oh super-duper 
I'm in loooove with this TRP guy (who looks a lot like my late 
husband).    TCoL49 is my favorite Pynchon novel to date,  read it 3 
x.   There is sooo much in there about so much out here and Oed is 
cool.


All this time I'd had "Gravity's Rainbow" sitting on the  shelf. 
I'd tried to get into it a couple times but ... nope - it wasn't 
doing much for me.   Finally,  a couple years ago I sat down and 
said,  "Read This Book."    And I did.  And I found it to be totally 
awful - I made it through but it was pretty rough going for large 
sections and I had to skim in many places.   I felt like I'd wandered 
into the wet-dream of a  20-something,  1970s male.  (Please -  I 
understand there is more to GR than that - Thank you.)

But,  because I loved the other books soooo much,  I ignored my 
reaction to GR and went on to read TRP's intro to 1984 and  bought V. 
and Slow Learner to sit on my shelves   From what I understand,  V. 
and the stories of Slow Learner are worse in the sexist attitudes 
department (by 21st century standards, of course) and I still haven't 
read V.

So like a good fan,  I looked forward to AtD with hope that it would 
be like his other work I'd enjoyed so well.  I was hoping for 
something along the lines of M&D,  to tell the truth.   I was  both 
disappointed and tickled to death.

I might have mixed feelings about AtD overall,  but I do delight in 
his treatment of women.   Women are found in relationships which they 
help to define and in which they initiate all manner of things. 
Although their motives are not always terribly clear,  the women in 
AtD  are not relegated to the clothes and parties end of the 
socio-political spectrum (although they can go there if they want). 
Hurray!!!   Boys might be boys but girls can get a little dirty, too. 
My kind of book.

One of my goals for the upcoming year is to reread AtD (with the 
group reading) and  see how far I get reading  V.  and reread GR  and 
the others.

Bekah
probably way out on a limb here,  be gentle  (g)